LibreTranslate — The Complete Guide: An In-House Translation Server That Keeps Documents Inside
LibreTranslate is an open-source (AGPL-3.0) machine translation server based on the Argos Translate engine, and it works with no internet connection. You install it on a local computer or an internal server, and every translated text stays inside the office — confidential documents are never sent to an outside service.
LibreTranslate
LibreTranslate community
An open-source machine translation server installed in-house — confidential documents never leave for an outside service.
Get it from the vendorWhat you get
- Local installation — with Python or Docker.
- Web interface — a simple translation page for everyone on the network.
- API — connect it to scripts and internal tools.
- File translation — not only text pasted into a box.
- No internet needed — it also works on a closed network.
When it fits
LibreTranslate fits an office that needs to understand a foreign manufacturer’s specification, a standard or correspondence with a supplier, and is bound by confidentiality to its client. Translation quality is generally below the large commercial services, so it is good for understanding content, not for the final translation of a contractual document. Self-hosting is free for any use; using the hosted API at libretranslate.com for commercial or high-volume use requires a paid key.
Related tools
To recognise text in scans before translating — gImageReader. To convert documents between formats — Pandoc. To edit the result as a document — LibreOffice.
gImageReader
gImageReader project
Graphical OCR built on Tesseract — turn scanned pages and PDFs into text or a searchable PDF.
Get it from the vendor
Pandoc
John MacFarlane
A universal document converter — Markdown, Word, LaTeX, HTML and PDF, so a report is written once and exported anywhere.
Get it from the vendor
LibreOffice
The Document Foundation
A full office suite — documents, spreadsheets, presentations and drawings, compatible with Office files.
Get it from the vendorONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors
ONLYOFFICE
An open office suite with high docx, xlsx and pptx fidelity, plus a PDF and form editor — for exchanging files with Microsoft Office users.
Get it from the vendorThe bottom line
When confidentiality matters more than perfect wording, LibreTranslate gives you machine translation that never leaves the office — free and open source.